Sitting in radical equanimity, we let all of life be just what it is and our resistance drops away. Whether it’s cancer, problems at work or in a marriage, our broken dreams or dashed hopes—all the ups and downs of life are “just as they are” when we are sitting. Our problems and fears remain but, somehow, by dropping resistance to them, everything is okay. We let them be, we leave them behind, in our equanimity during the minutes of our sitting. (After sitting we had best work to fix that marriage, solve the problems, cure our cancer. However, during the minutes of sitting, we put aside all need to fix, solve, and cure.) By assuming a balanced, stable, and comfortable physical posture—as comfortable as our health will allow—we facilitate a balanced, stable, and easy heart. Then, we just let be.

From The Zen Master’s Dance: A Guide to Understanding Dogen and Who You Are in the Universe by Jundo Cohen © 2020. Reprinted with permission of Wisdom Publications

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